State Rep. Kimberly Daniels (D-Jacksonville) accused fellow Democrat Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) of defamation on July 27 after the two disagreed, to different degrees, with the Florida Department of Education's social studies standards for the 2023-24 academic year. | Will Brown
Published on July 28, 2023 at 6:03 pm
The tenuous relationship between Northeast Florida’s only Democratic members of the Florida House of Representatives took a combative turn this week when Rep. Kimberly Daniels accused Rep. Angie Nixon of defamation.
Daniels called a news conference Thursday to decry what she called Nixon’s “outright lying” about her.
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“I’m not backing down on that,” Daniels says. “And this has been going on for 12 years. I have never addressed it. I’ve sat back. I’ve tried to take the high road and sit back and be beat down as somebody that I’m not. It’s just time that we kill this. … Let’s work together and do some things today. Don’t use your failures to attack me and to make me look bad.”
Daniels’ attorney, Robert J. Slama, sent Nixon a cease and desist letter Thursday. Nixon says she has no idea where the idea of a 12-year feud arose. She says it is frustrating that time was devoted to discussing their disagreement rather than issues that affect people on the Westside, Northside, Arlington, Out East and North Jacksonville.
“This is just pettiness,” Nixon tells Jacksonville Today. “I will continue to work for the people. I can stand by all the statements I have given in my lifetime.”
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Nixon defeated Daniels, at the time a two-term incumbent, by 19 points in a 2020 Democratic primary for House District 14.
Redistricting after that election meant Nixon and Daniels were not in the same district during the 2022 Democratic primaries.
Both representatives vehemently disagreed with the Florida Department of Education’s social studies curriculum for the upcoming academic year. Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. appointed Daniels to Florida’s African American History Task Force this year.
Nixon spoke out about the 216-page standards since they were first released July 19.
In the days after the standards were released, Daniels went viral over her remarks during a decade-old sermon she gave expressing her thanks for ‘slavery’ and ‘the crackhouse.’
Journalist Roland Martin excoriated Daniels for that sermon on his daily digital show.
Nixon encouraged her followers on Facebook to watch Martin’s comments. She wrote: “Everyone should stop what they’re doing and go watch Roland Martin talk about the ridiculousness of the new Florida African American Teaching Standards.”
Martin devoted nearly 30 minutes to Florida’s social studies standards and Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Jacksonville.
“Anytime you hear somebody who is a Christian pastor. Any time you hear one of them say something so stupid and idiotic as ‘If I was in Africa, I would be worshipping a tree.’ Has simply no understanding of faith and religion that emanated from the motherland,” Martin said on a July 25 episode of his show.
Daniels claims those comments were taken out of context because she used both events as obstacles that she, as a Christian, overcame to get to the position she was in at the time. Jacksonville Today asked Daniels for a complete copy of the sermon. She was unable to provide it.
Daniels and Nixon are two Black women who grew up in Jacksonville, were educated in public schools and have served as Democrats in the Florida House of Representatives for multiple terms. This week, both women cited their lived experience as a primary reason for disagreeing with some of the state’s social studies standards.
Nixon says the last time the two women spoke was in February when a bill introduced by Daniels honoring longtime Ribault High track coach Gwendolyn Maxwell passed the Transportation & Modals Subcommittee.
A bridge on Howell Drive that crosses the Ribault River was named after the coach who led the Trojans to four state championships and was a role model for hundreds of girls in Northwest Jacksonville.
The language renaming a portion of Howell Drive was included in a wider bill (HB 21) that renamed portions of Heckscher Drive after former Jacksonville sheriff’s officer Scott Bell; portions of Interstate 295 after Christopher Kane and a one-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in Nassau County after James McWhorter, a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services agricultural law enforcement officer. All three died in the line of duty.
Daniels missed the vote. Nixon voted against it. The local Republicans in the House all supported the bill. It went into effect July 1.
“For some reason, state Rep. Angie Nixon has harassed me (and) tried to bully me,” Daniels says. “For some reason she feels like I shouldn’t be on the Legislature. But, the people elected me. I’m not going anywhere. It’s time for me to fight back.”
For Nixon, this isn’t a fight. “I’m more concerned with how I am making sure people are adequately housed,” she says. “I am disgusted that she did this. This is an attempt to take attention away from her words.”
Lead Image: State Rep. Kimberly Daniels, D-Jacksonville, accused fellow Democrat Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, of defamation on Thursday, July 27. 2023. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
